Photography with Distinction

2024 marks the first edition of the Emerging Photographer Award, organised by the Art, Market and Law section of the German Association for Photography (DGPh). The prize-giving ceremony will be held at the Leica Gallery Paris in November 2024, coinciding with the world-famous Paris Photo expo. 

Mika Sperling, whose nomination was submitted by Jule Schaffer, has been selected as the winner of the 2024 Emerging Photographer Award. The artist stands to receive a monetary prize of 3,000 euros, funded by WhiteWall. Elliott Kreyenberg and Marco Dirr received Special Mentions. 

The jury reviewed over 70 nominations, put forward by representatives of the international art market. Eligible nominees had to have been active in the art market for no more than three years, regardless of their age, and show significant potential for wider recognition. 

In the words of jury member Simone Klein: “With Mika Sperling's series I Have Done Nothing Wrong, the jury honours a powerful, personal and unique approach to conveying the individual, traumatic experience of child abuse in a complex and challenging visual form, involving the viewer both emotionally and intellectually. The nature of the topic and its multi-layered visual realisation are deeply moving, and have left a profound impression on this year’s jury.”